Caps shuffle up the lines, promote Fleischmann

Nicklas Backstrom moves from the first line to the second, where he will center Brooks Laich and Alexander Semin. Regardless of who pivots the line, the two wingers have excellent chemistry and have formed a bond which should help the Caps continually generate scoring from their “secondary” line.

In the meantime, the Caps will roll out a first line of Alexander Ovechkin, Mike Knuble and Tomas Fleischmann– which boosts the value of the latter. The man known as Flash has increased his production in each of his five NHL seasons and could eclipse his 51 points of last season should he stick with Ovechkin and manage to stay healthy. Fleischmann has never played more than 75 games in a season but is on track for 82 thus far.

The full forward lines for tonight’s game look like this:

Ovechkin – Fleischmann – Knuble

Laich – Backstrom – Semin

Jason Chimera – Matt Hendricks – Eric Fehr

DJ King – David Steckel – Boyd Gordon

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